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The African Union wants the ICC to drop the charges against Uhuru Kenyatta

Kenyan MPs have approved a motion to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC) following an emergency debate.

A bill to this effect is expected to be introduced in the next 30 days, after opposition MPs boycotted the vote.

The ICC has charged President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto with crimes against humanity, which they both deny. Mr Ruto's trial is due to start in The Hague next week.

The ICC said the cases would continue even if Kenya pulled out.

The charges against both Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto stem from violence that broke out after disputed elections in 2007, in which more than 1,000 people were killed and 600,000 forced from their homes.

Mr Kenyatta is to go on trial in November.

'Defend Kenya's sovereignty'

Analysis

By Gabriel GatehouseBBC News, Nairobi

In one sense this is a calculated piece of political theatre. The issue of the ICC is generally agreed to have helped, not hindered, the electoral prospects of Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto.

The debate in parliament will rekindle a sense of righteous anger among many here who feel that the president and his deputy are the victims, rather than the alleged perpetrators, of injustice.

This is a notion that is gaining currency, not just in Kenya, but across Africa. In May, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn accused the ICC of racist bias and of "hunting Africans."

That kind of sentiment could prove useful in the weeks to come, to counter the potential negative impression created by pictures of Mr Ruto in the dock.

Even if Kenya does eventually withdraw from the Rome Statute, it will not halt prosecutions currently under way. But it could embolden other African nations to follow suit.

They were on opposite sides during the 2007 election but formed an alliance for elections in March this year, and analysts say the ICC prosecutions bolstered their campaign as they portrayed it as foreign interference in Kenya's domestic affairs.

The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse reports from the capital, Nairobi that even though the vote does not halt the cases, it sends a powerful signal of defiance to The Hague - a sentiment that is becoming increasingly popular, in Kenya and across much of Africa.

No other country has withdrawn from the ICC.

Kenya's parliament is dominated by the Jubilee coalition formed by Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto.